THIS WEEKEND Video
gamers and zombie fans stalked the multiplexes powering the new action
thriller Resident Evil: Apocalypse
to the number one spot at the North American box office during an otherwise
sluggish post Labor Day frame. The kidnapping drama Cellular
bowed in second place while most holdovers saw heavy declines coming off
of the holiday session. With students going back to class and a new football
season commencing, ticket sales for the top ten films failed to break the
$60M mark for the second consecutive weekend.

Apocalypse took advantage of the
lethargic marketplace and generated a strong $23M opening weekend, according
to final studio figures, improving
upon the $17.7M bow of the first Resident Evil
from March 2002. Playing much wider this time, the sequel averaged
a healthy $7,015 from 3,284 theaters which nearly cloned the $7,004 opening
average of its predecessor from 2,528 locations. Resident
Evil: Apocalypse, which finds Milla Jovovich as a human heroine
who battles infected zombies, was the fifth top spot debut of the year
for market share leader Sony and was the tenth sequel to open at number
one in 2004. Produced for $44M, the R-rated actioner appealed mostly to
young men and despite being likely to see large declines in the weeks ahead,
should outgun the $39.5M gross of the first Resident
Evil keeping the franchise alive.

While Jovovich was out saving humanity from the walking undead, Kim
Basinger played a damsel in distress in the New Line kidnapping thriller
Cellular which opened in second place
with $10.1M. Playing in 2,749 theaters, the PG-13 film averaged a decent
$3,674 per location. Chris Evans and William H Macy co-starred in the $25M
production. Cellular did manage to
attract better reviews from critics than Resident
Evil did and appealed to a more adult crowd.

Sinking only 36% was the Paramount hit comedy Without
A Paddle which dropped a spot to third with $4.5M in its fourth
weekend. The Seth Green title has collected a hearty $45.5M to date. Two-term
chart-topper Hero fell 50% to $4.4M
in its third outing. Ranking fourth, the subtitled Miramax film has grossed
$41.7M in 17 days and already ranks as the fourth highest-grossing foreign
language film of all-time after The Passion of
the Christ, Crouching Tiger, Hidden
Dragon, and Life is Beautiful.

Moviegoers sprinkled their dollars around spending between $2-3M each
on a whopping nine different films this weekend proving that audiences
only have real excitement for a couple of choices in the marketplace at
this time. Disney's The Princess Diaries 2
grossed $2.9M, off 47%, and pushed its cume to $89.3M. Pulling in $2.81M,
but tumbling 56% in the process, was Sony's Anacondas
which has collected $27.6M to date.

Fox's Paparazzi followed with $2.77M,
down 55%, for a ten-day total of $12M. The Tom Cruise assassin thriller
Collateral shot up $2.72M in its sixth
weekend, down 46%, giving the DreamWorks entry $92.7M to date.

The period piece Vanity Fair dropped
46% to $2.61M in its second weekend putting its 12-day total at $11.1M.
With $2.52M in its 14th weekend of release, the Fox Searchlight sleeper
hit Napoleon Dynamite finally reached
the top ten. Averaging $2,733 from 921 theaters, the low budget high school
comedy has lifted its cume to an amazing $30.3M and should be able to surpass
the $40M mark as well.

Three releases fell from the top ten over the weekend but stayed within
the popular $2-3M range. MGM's romantic drama Wicker
Park crumbled 54% in its second weekend to $2.51M giving the
Josh Hartnett film just $10.4M in ten days. Lions Gate took in $2.27M for
the comedy The Cookout, off 55%, for
a cume of only $9.2M in ten days.

Universal's The Bourne Supremacy,
the number five film of the summer box office, slipped 43% to $2.34M in
its eighth weekend of release. Produced for $75M, Matt Damon's action sequel
has grossed $167.9M domestically and an additional $45M overseas with many
more markets still to open. In the coming days, Supremacy
will surpass the $214M worldwide gross of The
Bourne Identity from two years ago and is hoping to reach the
$300M global barrier.

In limited release, Warner Independent Film met with disappointing results
from the opening of its caper pic Criminal
which debuted to an estimated $283,209 from 77 theaters. The George Clooney-produced
dud averaged just $3,678 per theater. The Korean War saga Tae
Guk Ki took in $168,589 in its second weekend, off 35%, for
a ten-day tally of $605,229. Distributed by Destination Films & Samuel
Goldwyn Films, the subtitled picture averaged a solid $5,438 from 31 bunkers.

The top ten films grossed $58.4M which was down 17% from last year when
Once Upon A Time in Mexico opened at
number one with $23.4M; and down 16% from 2002 when Barbershop
debuted in the top spot with $20.6M.

Compared to projections, Resident Evil opened
a few notches above my $20M forecast while Cellular
debuted on target with my $10M prediction.

Test your box office predicting skills by entering the NEW Ghost
in the Shell 2contest for
your chance to win a DVD or movie posters.

Take this week's NEW Reader
Survey on the opening of Sky Captain and the
World of Tomorrow. In last week's survey, readers were asked
whether Resident Evil: Apocalypse would
open with more or less than the original's $17.7M. Of 2,782 responses,
43% correctly guessed More while 57% picked Less.

Read the NEW Summer Box Office Wrapup
which includes the projected final grosses of the Top 20 movies of the
season. For a NEW review of Resident Evil: Apocalypse
and an interview with Gwenyth Paltrow of Sky Captain,
visit The
Chief Report.

Be sure to check back on Thursday
for a complete summary, including projections, for next weekend when Sky
Captain, Wimbledon, and
Mr. 3000 all open nationwide.

This column is updated three times each week:
Thursday
(upcoming weekend's summary), Sunday
(post-weekend analysis with estimates), and Monday
night (actuals). Data source: Exhibitor
Relations, EDI. Opinions expressed
in this column are those solely of the author.

Last Updated : September
13, 2004 at 6:00PM EDT

Gitesh Pandya can be seen each Friday on "The
Biz" airing live at 12:30pm ET on CNNfn with a replay at 4:30pm.